Earthcare

The Earth needs our help, and what better place to tell that story than in our worship liturgies? After millennia of hearing that humankind is commanded to “fill the earth and subdue it” and “have dominion … over every living thing,” we could acknowledge that we have been successful in following that directive and the results have not completely positive. It may be time to write a 21^st century version of Genesis 1:28, one that recognizes our modern ability to obliterate the planet, and hence our obligation to refrain from harm. The new story needs to be told again and again, just the way the old one was, until we know it by heart and it becomes part of us.